Gathering Memories Project

A community project in aid of the Alzheimer's Society has been launched to help raise money for their charity. You can find the details here. 

One of my friends sent away for a few of the kits, and I was one of the lucky recipients. Both my own Mum, and Mum in law had forms of dementia, which eventually took their lives as a result of complications caused by this awful disease.

The idea is that you make up a piece of textile art from the kit provided, which includes a length of cream silk fabric, stitched through the centre with gold thread. These strips of silk originally formed a piece of  installation art, which has now been deconstructed. I used my length of silk to form the skirt of the dancer's tutu. 

The theme for the project  is to create a piece of art that reflects a memory personal to the maker. After completion, the piece can either be kept by the maker, or sent back to the organisers for sale in an auction to be held next year. I will probably send mine back.

My memory is threefold really, I always wanted to be a ballet dancer as a child, and can remember how bitterly disappointed I was when I wasn't chosen to be one of the fairy dancers in the school Christmas play. I also truly believed that fairies lived at the bottom of my garden, and then last year I actually went to my very first ballet performance at the Albert Hall, Wonderful!

Thanks for reading, and follow my link above if you think you may be interested in taking part too, 

Class Experiments, some results!

My Tuesday class results, the two above and below. We've been working on making concertina books, with the theme, 'our favourite walk'. My first attempt above is more abstract, and the one I favour. I was using imagery from a walk along the prom towards Holywell Bay. It is reversible, so you can see each side. However, the examples below are very kitsch/whimsical, and in fact the top one no longer exists! I didn't like it so painted over it and then produced the one below. I don't like that one either, so I'm in the process of trying another idea.

Below are examples of the watercolour experiments from my Wednesday class. We've been using different types of salt, sprinkled over the wet paint, and then waiting to see what marks are produced. You can actually see the salt on the surface in these photos, because I took them before the paint was dry, and the salt removed. That will have to wait until next week now, as I left them behind in the classroom.

The above photos are all close ups of different sections of the same piece, but below I have just taken the one photo of the whole image.

Lots of fun, and it's good to be trying out new ideas with different techniques. I'm sure there will be an overlap at some point with my textiles.

Thanks for reading.

No stitch or cloth, but plenty of colour!

April was a very busy month, no blogging, no stitching and no cloth! I had all my family here with me in Eastbourne, including my daughter and grandson from New Zealand.

 

One of my grandsons was celebrating his birthday, so a wonderful excuse for HUGE icecreams, and very scrummy they were too! Then my daughter decided to treat me to afternoon tea. Not on the same day I hasten to add, but that also went down very well!!! Just look at that huge smile on my greedy face.

 

Spring also arrived in all its glory, and we walked on Beachy Head one sunny evening when the sun was beginning to set over the sea.

Low tide at the beach revealed pebbles caught in the groynes, and some interesting sea worn groynes on the beach. Hopefully inspiration for some future mixed media artwork.

Unusual milky green coloured sea as the skies above became more and more stormy looking.

That same stormy sky looking east from the seafront towards Hastings.

Finally, a good blowy walk across the South Downs with my sister and some friends on May day. Everything has gone rather quiet again now, with family all returned to their respective homes from New Zealand to West Wales. The family time has been a wonderful and precious interlude, but I'm now ready to get back into making art, watch this space folks, and thanks for looking in this time too.